What The Book Club Read In 2019

At the bright and early start that marked 2019, I decided to start a book club. However, with reviewing books and wanting some pleasure reading on the side, I felt that one joined book per month was "too much". It felt too stressful and as something that seemed too daunting to do for a whole year - or even longer - never mind the social aspect.

Instead, I decided that three months one book sounded like a good deal. You get three months to read the book, and can schedule all others around it. And as such, the "Book Club For Lazy, Slow, And Stressed Readers" was born. I was Stressed, others were Lazy or Slow. It provided the perfect mix, and later on, people who wanted to read more but managed to read nothing during the year, felt that this was just the right atmosphere.

With taking three months per book, nobody expected to move any mountains during this period. However, we found some nice and lovely reads along the way. But also, not so nice and lovely reads. The "Book Club For Lazy, Slow, And Stressed Readers" currently consists of four members, three from the start, plus Silver who joined later.

During this period we managed to cover the following books:

Eleanor Olpihant is Completely Fine

by Gail Honeyman

This marked the first read of the book club. Lori suggested it because she wanted to figure out what the fuss is about, and if it is justified. Meanwhile, I - the book blogger - hadn't even known that there was a fuss about this.

"Eleanor Olpihant is Completely Fine" is about Eleanor who lives life as an "outsider". She doesn't see the point in socializing at work and going out on weekends. Her life is limited to work and not much else. After seeing a beautiful artist, she becomes convinced that he is going to be the true love of her life and all is going to be all right once they meet. Thus, she embarks on a challenge to get to know him and slips into a social routine encountering the norm set around her. And how does she fit into all of this?

The book is written with a lot of wit, and depicts interactions and behaviour that is seen as "normal" from an outside view. Thus, somehow turning it into a funnier moment. In fact, Sophie mentioned that she enjoyed Eleanor's voice so much that she didn't want to rush through the book. The empathetic writing wasn't lost on the book club either. I thought that a lot of people could follow her thoughts and feel what she feels while it still made sense. Lori remarked, "sometimes feel like I'm peeking in Eleanor's window. She's transcended the pages and become more than a character to me."

In the end, "Eleanor Olpihant is Completely Fine" had been perfectly summed up by Lori, who state: "I'll be honest, I was not expecting as much depth from this book as I've found."

A five flower read, and a great start for the book club.

Suggested by Lori

Good Omens

by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman

I suggested to read Good Omens next after stumbling over a review on the World Wide Web. Sophie second this idea because she wanted to finish the book before the TV-Show aired. Thus, our next read had been found!

Good Omens is about - to quote my full review - "the unlikely duo of an angel (Aziraphale) and a demon (Crowley) have been on the Earth since its creation. After a thousands of years, they have become fond of this puny little planet and when Armageddon should start to happen, they try to stop it."

Overall, "Good Omens" had been considered a funny and entertaining read. It also started the hobby of guessing who could have written which part, and Sophie's guess had been "about 75% Pratchett and 25% Gaiman. Which is fine." She also remarked on the funny nature of the read and was " [...] enjoying the interactions between Crowley and Aziraphale."

This mirrored most of the clubs experiences. Even though, two of us suffered a bit of a slump halfway through - the "infamous" Wednesday slowness, as I already remarked prior and praised other adaptations for when they managed to avoid it. I personally enjoyed reading it.

The Black Veins

by Ashia Monet

I suggest this novel because it promised a road trip story - yay - with a little bit of magic - indifferent - and without a romantic plot - double yay. The book club reacted similarly and thus, each of us got a lovely copy and when the time rolled on, we started reading.

Sadly, this faith had been misplaced. While Silver managed to make it through the book in one day, but even they were not satisfied with it. Though, of all the three of us - Lori skipped this read - they had the "kindest" opinion. Sophie was unable to finish reading it at all, and put it on her DNF pile because "[...] but to be honest, the writing is terrible [...] the sentence structure is sloppy and the world-building unconvincing at best." While I felt that the writing remained always the same, regardless of the scene's tone. On top of this, I simply could not get along with any of the characters, let alone with the main ...

Even though, all of us appreciated the introduction of a very diverse cast.

Suggested by Susanne

All The Light We Cannot See

by Anthony Doerr

is the next novel on our list. Silver picked it because they trust short-story writers and Doerr's are great - according to them. Even though, it is set during the WWII, readers remarked on how hopeful it is. I am curious how this one is going to pan out, and will make sure to share the opinions

20 comments
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Just four books a year sounds like a perfect book club to me. I can't imagine having to read a whole book, which is kind of an obligation, on top of my university work and books I read just for my own enjoyment. Financially speaking it'd be great as well, because my local library is basically empty and I'm eternally broke. A teacher of mine had a copy of Eleanor Olpihant is Completely Fine, which she gave away to the first student to show up at a seminar. I came second... I'm going to keep an eye out on the book exchanges at train stations though, maybe someone will leave a copy there.Anyway, I really like how you structured this post, with everyone's opinions represented and respected. It sounds like you have a great book club!